That's What Friends Are For
by TheOrangeNinjaUnicornSuperhero
Summary: Percy has gotta have some mortal friends, right? Normal high school kids, that he can eat lunch with and hang out with after school when he's not at camp. What happens to them when Percy disappears? What about when he comes back? This is their story.


**Hi everyone! This story is dedicated to my wonderful cousins, who my OCs are based off of! They'll probably never read this, but if they do, you guys rock! **

**Disclaimer: If I was Rick Riordan, all 5 books would be out by now, and Percabeth wouldn't be in Tartarus. But unfortunately, I'm not Rick, and therefore, we have a long painful wait while Percabeth stays in Tartarus.**

**Sorry for typos and OOCness**

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(Brooke's POV)

I woke to the blaring of my alarm at 6:00 a.m. I pulled myself out of bed and put on my favorite purple hoodie, a pair of jeans, and my converse high tops. After eating a quick breakfast consisting of a bagel and a glass of orange juice, I brushed my teeth and ran a brush through my long brown hair. Glancing in the mirror on the way out the door, I saw a pair of bright brown eyes and a cheerful smile. I walked up the snowy street toward Goode High School.

Winter Break had just ended, and sad as it was, I was actually really excited to go back to school. I love learning, but mostly I was just excited to see all my friends Logan, Lindsey, Percy, and my cousin Alex. None of us were very popular, but we got along and looked out for each other, and that's all that matters, right?

As I entered the wintery school yard, I heard a voice call, "Brooke!" I looked around, and spotted Alex with his longish mop of brown hair and bright green eyes. Other than the eyes, we look really similar. Most people are surprised that we're not siblings. Really, the only other difference is height. He towers over me, being pretty tall for anyway, and I'm pretty short. I walked over to him, and by the time I reached him, Logan, his best friend, had joined him by the doors. Logan has light brown hair and blue hair.

"Let's go inside guys. It's freezing out here!" I suggested. They shrugged and followed me through the double doors. I stopped in the hall and leaned up against my locker. "So, how was your break?" I asked.

"Great!" Logan answered happily. No surprise there, considering I had never seen him without a smile on his face. "I got a car for Christmas! Granted, it is second hand, and pretty beat up, but it's a car! And it works!"

"No way!" I cried. "That's awesome!"

"Just as I finished saying that, a pair of hands covered my face. "Guess who!"

"Lindsey," I shouted, "get your hands off my face! They're freezing!"

"Fine," she grumbled, stepping out from behind me so I could see her long dark hair, bright blue eyes, and a mischevious smile. "Someone's running a little late today!" She said in a sing-song voice.

"Who, Percy?" asked Alex. "We still have a few minutes."

"Yeah, but isn't he usually here before all of us?" Lindsey said, "Doesn't he get a ride from Mr. Blofis? Who comes early, because he's a teacher?"

"He probably slept in, which isn't much of a surprise," I said. "Once that kid is asleep you'd need an air horn to wake him up."

"I thought Sally had a couple on hand," Logan joked.

We all laughed, but Lindsey suggested, "Maybe we should go ask Paul. I just have this bad feeling."

The rest of us didn't really feel anything, but we decided to humor her and go talk to Mr. Blofis. "Hey kids, what's up?" he asked as we entered his classroom.

"Is Percy here?" Lindsey asked. "We haven't seen him."

Paul's face visibly darkened. "You probably know he was staying at camp over the break?" We all nodded. "Well, he got held up there. He should be back soon, but we don't know when. I'll let you guys know when we find something out."

"Kay, thanks Paul!" I said and led my friends out of his room.

"I told you something was wrong!" Lindsey cried. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!"

"Not wrong," Alex interupted, "He just got held up. He's fine."

Lindsey frowned. "That's what he told us. Did you see his face? Something is obiously wrong."

I couldn't help but agree.

Percy didn't show up for the rest of that week, or the next. What chould possibly be so important at this camp of his that he missed two weeks of school? And what kind of summer camp allowed kids to miss school to be there? Something was wrong.

"Guys, maybe we should go talk to Sally." I suggested. We were all sitting in Logan's living room, spread out on the couch, floor, and basically everywhere.

Lindsey immediantly agreed. "Let's go."

Since we didn't have anything better to do, we piled into Logan's little car and drove to the Jackson-Blofis residence. We knocked on the door, and as expected, Sally answered with a warm, "Hey guys! Come on in! Sit down! I'll go grab some cookies. You guys look hungry." Percy's mom is awesome.

We all sat on the couch or floor, making ourselves right at home. Sally returned a few minutes later with cookies and glasses of milk for all of us. "You guys want to know where Percy is, right?" Sally said, reading all of our minds with her awesomeness.

"Did something happen to him?" Lindsey asked, worry written on her face.

"I'm sorry guys, but I don't know anything either. I haven't been contacted from camp yet. I was actually expecting someone to come today and tell me. She should be here soon, I think. If it's okay with her, you guys could stay to hear the news."

"Thanks so much Sally," Alex said. "And as usual, the cookies are awesome."

Just then, there was a knock on the door. "That must be her!" Sally cried, jumping off the couch to answer it. As she opened the door, I could see a tall, slim, athletic looking girl with curly blonde hair. "Annabeth!" Sally cried, "Come on in!" she walked in like she had been here many times before and collapsed on the smaller couch that we hadn't already taken over. As she sagged down in her seat, she noticed us sitting there staring at her.

"Oh!" Sally said, "These are Percy's friends, Lindsey, Alex, Logan, and Brooke."

I waved shyly and mentally cursed myself. I had always been pretty socially awkward.

"Annabeth Chase," she introduced herself.

"They want to stay to hear the news. Is that alright?" Sally asked.

Annabeth considered us, with fierce gray eyes and a slight scowl, obiously deep in thought. Then she cracked a smile. "How much is Seaweed Brain paying you guys to be his friend? You guys look definately too well behaved to be associated with him!"

All at the same time, Logan cried, "Hey!"

Lindsey said, "He's not paying us, unfortunately."

And Alex said, "Seaweed Brain?"

"Nickname," she said. "When we were twelve, he was so clueless, so I decided his head must be full of kelp. So therefore, Seaweed Brain." She had a wistful smile on her face, as though she were remembering better times. "And about Percy," her smile crumpled. "I don't know where he is. He went missing a couple days ago."

We were all in shock. "What? How?" I managed to get out.

"We don't know, but believe me. We're trying to find out," Annabeth said.

"Are you doing alright?" Sally asked her. I couldn't believe it. She just found out that her only son is missing, and she still took the time to ask if others were doing okay.

Annabeth nodded. "I'm fine." Though, all of us could clearly see she wasn't.

"Oh honey! Come with me! I'll get you some food and we can talk." Sally cried. Turning to us, she said, "I think she wants some time alone. Feel free to come back anytime though."

We thanked Sally for the cookies and left as Sally was leading Annabeth to the kitchen, where no doubt a big plate of blue cookies and a glass of milk was waiting for her.

"As we walked to Logan's car, Alex said, "Well, that was... Strange."

We all agreed. We went back to Logan's house to discuss what had happened and what we'd found out.

-10 Months Later-

There was still no news on Percy, and the next school year had already started. We didn't give up hope though. We knew that he was still out there and he was coming home. We knew it. Don't ask me how, but we did.

As I walked into my second period English class, which was taught by Percy's step dad, I went towards his desk to ask him the question I asked every day. I didn't even reach the desk. Paul came up to me with a huge smile on his face. "He's back! He came home!"

"Really?" I asked. "Really truely?"

"Yes!" he cried. "You guys should come see him tonight. Seeing you might help cheer him up."

"We'll be there." I promised with a huge grin.

After school, I met up with the others, bursting to tell them my news. When I told them, their eyes light up and they all insisted on going right then, straight from school. Then again, so did I. We called our parents and told them where we were going, and luckly they understood the situation and allowed us all to go.

We drove over there with huge grins and all but ran up to his door when we arrived. We pounded on the door, and it flew open almost immediantly. The kid who answered the door casually tried to hide something behind his back. A knife maybe? Anyway, he looked like the very definition of perfect. He had flawless blonde hair and bright blue eyes. There was a little scar on his lip, but that almost made his face look better. Even the bandage on his right arm and the way he favored his left leg couldn't ruin the image. Somehow they completed it. "Hi!" Lindsey said cheerfully. "I'm Lindsey, this is Logan, Alex, and Brooke. We're here to see Percy."

"Um... Perce? There's people here to see you!" He called back into the house, still looking at us as though any second we would sprout multiple heads and start breathing fire.

"Who is it?" called a voice I knew to be Percy's.

"Perseus Jackson!" Logan yelled. "You have some explaining to do. Disappear for a year without warning, then show up and not even tell us? Get over here!"

I heard some banging, and an 'oops', but after a minute Percy's face appeared in the doorway. "Guys? No way!" he said with a big smile. He looked awful. He had a bandage wrapped around his head a cast around his Right leg. He was leaning on crutches and what was visible of him was covered in scars, scrapes, bruises, and cuts.

I was horrified. "What happened to you?"

He looked down at himself. "What, these? These are nothing! You should've seen Annabeth after..." his voice trailed off.

"After what?" asked Alex.

"Nothing." he said nonchlantly, as though nothing had happened. "Come on in guys. I'll explain later, but for now come get some cookies and meet my friends from camp!"

We followed him inside to his living room, which was packed full of teenagers. I could see Annabeth, passed out on the couch next to a pretty Native American girl with eyes like kaleidoscopes. Next to her, was a girl with darker skin, curly brown hair, and gold eyes who looked younger than the rest of the group. On the smaller couch, a big, burly chinese guy was asleep. He would've looked intimidating, if his face didn't still look like a baby's, and if he wasn't asleep. On the floor, a scrawny hispanic kid was fiddling with something wrapped in an oil cloth. All of them looked pretty bad, in the same condition as the blonde kid and Percy. Covered in bandages, casts, or other injuries. As they entered the room, Percy announced to the kids that were awake, "Hey guys, these are my friends Alex, Brooke, Lindsey, and Logan," he said, gesturing to us as he said our name. We waved and entered the room.

As I was sitting down, the hispanic kid leaned over to me and said, "Hey. I'm Suprime Commander, or Chief, or... Or... Well, for you, Leo." He extended his hand.

Before I could take it, a voice said, "Leo. Stop." It was the pretty Native American girl. She turned to me and said, "Ignore him, he's like this to everyone," she glared pointedly at him, "Even if they're already taken." I laughed as Leo scowled at Piper.

The rest of the people introduced themselves and the people asleep, and we talked for a long time. A couple hours later, I got a text from my mom saying I needed to come home for dinner.

I told the others that I had to leave, and my friends followed me, considering that they're my ride home. We said bye to our newfound friends. Before we left, I turned to Percy. "You, mister, still have some explaining to do." He gulped, his friends from camp laughed, and we exited his apartment.

Over the next week, Percy fed us some garbled story about why he disappeared, and what happened. It didn't make much sense, but we didn't push him. It was nice to have him back, to be able to hang out with all five of us. Our table at lunch seemed full again, and we laughed lots more. It turns out, some of Percy's camp friends are going to start attending Goode with us. Annabeth, Piper, and Leo will be joining us in a week or two, while Jason, Hazel, and Frank were going back to California.

I tried to stay mad at Percy for leaving without telling us, but I couldn't bring myself to. We forgave him, and everything went back to normal. Well, mostly.

We could tell that Percy had gone through something terrible, and we did our best to support him as he slowly began to move on. After all, isn't that what friends are for?

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**Sorry to everyone who requested making it into a multi-chapter story, I just don't know how to do it without making it too cliche. **

**Thanks for reading! And everyone who reviews, gets cupcakes. Scratch that, cookies. Sally's blue cookies for all!**

**-Orange**


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